Effects of acute alcohol intoxication on gluconeogenesis and its hormonal responsiveness in isolated, perfused rat liver

Ion V. Deaciuc, Nympha B. D'souza, Charles H. Lang, John J. Spitzer

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    19 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    Rats were acutely administered ethanol as a primed constant infusion in order to produce sustained blood ethanol levels of 8-12 or 55-65 mM. At the end of ethanol infusion the livers were either freeze-clamped in vivo or isolated and perfused for metabolic studies. The rate ofgluconeogenesis and its responsiveness to phenylephrine (10μM), prostaglandin F (5μM) and glucagon (10 nM), as well as the redox state of the cytosolic NAD+-NADH system were assessed in livers isolated from acutely ethanol-treated rats, and subsequently perfused without ethanol. For liver clamped in vivo, high- but not low-ethanol treatment decreased the ATP content by 31% and slightly increased ADP and AMP content, resulting in a decreased energy charge (11%). Glutamate and aspartate content was also increased in high-dose ethanol-infused rats with no changes in malate and 2-oxoglutarate content. Gluconeogenesis with saturating concentrations of lactate (4 mM) + pyruvate (0.4 mM) was delayed in reaching a plateau in the livers of high-dose ethanol-treated rats and its response to all three stimulators was impaired. Low-dose ethanol treatment only decreased the liver response to phenylephrine. While the perfused livers of low-dose ethanol-treated rats displayed no changes in adenine nucleotide content, the livers of high-dose ethanol-treated rats had a decreased ATP (35%) and an increased AMP (77%) content, paralleled by a fall in the total adenine nucleotides (14%) and energy charge (14%). No differences were observed between the saline- and ethanol-treated rats with respect to malate-aspartate shuttle intermediate concentration in perfused livers. Also, the livers of high-, but not low-dose ethanol-treated rats had a more negative value of NAD+-NADH redox state as compared to the livers of control rats. The data suggest that acute ethanol intoxication produces changes in liver metabolism and its responsiveness to hormones/agonists that are demonstrable for at least 2 hr after isolation and perfusion of the liver.

    Original languageEnglish (US)
    Pages (from-to)1617-1624
    Number of pages8
    JournalBiochemical Pharmacology
    Volume44
    Issue number8
    DOIs
    StatePublished - Oct 20 1992

    All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

    • Biochemistry
    • Pharmacology

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